12.07.1916. Terioca.
Dear Kostya, frankly speaking, I did not expect such a kind, sincere letter from you. I also want to see you! Maybe you will come in August, before the classes? Now my Lenochka's parents offered me to go with her along the Volga River, but I refused.
I never doubted your friendly feelings, and I do not need to assure you of my friendship. So, dear friend, what I will tell you... I thought about it and forgot. And as if something very important had wanted to say... No, I can't remember.
Now it's quiet. It's about eleven, and I'm writing without fire. The open window smells strongly of tobacco and rye. And the soul is light and quiet. Here's what! I have to write to you where I am and what is wrong with me. Listen, i.e. read. I was overworked during the winter, though I was very well organized, drank
yogurt and ate a great meal at all. "Too much nervousness," said the doctor and sent me to Terijoki, Finland, for absolute rest (but he strictly forbade me to swim, which I grieve about and still swim). Lenochka and I rented a room and live together very well. It is only bad that everything is expensive - the resort. I live independently, I keep some statistics of cows. Lenochka's father offered me this job. Of course, I do not work with her anymore. She is a nice, witty girl, always makes me laugh, pushes me incredibly fat, and when I bathe, pulls me out of the water. It's good to splash, sandy beach. But, of course, it's worse than in Yalta, and the sea, compared to the Black, seems to be a large puddle of static. Don't be surprised by my spelling, I'm so tired that I forget the most common words, and in music I lost my rhythm. This is especially unpleasant. Lenochkin's brother, Dmitry, whom I seem to have written about, is a good cello player, and in winter we often had musical evenings. And now it doesn't work because I hear the rhythm and I can't follow it. Well, I dodged it again!
I live quietly, I don't meet anybody. I read quite a lot. I enjoy the little joys. I work. Recently, for example, there was a happy evening. What do you think, why? I saw a carpet with a brightly motley pattern hanging on a pole against the background of a juicy green meadow, and behind it, far away, pines still burned in the colors of the sunset. I thought, "It's good to live! I started to write it and decided that it was bad.
Write, I'll be waiting very long.
01.07.1916.
My dear, I want to tell you about interesting acquaintance. On sketches, I got acquainted with one old artist, the cleverest and most interesting person. He is tall, bony, he walks quickly, so even I do not keep up with him on his long legs, sharp, categorical and at the same time kind and simple as a child. His name is Ivan Yakovlevich Rheingart. When we met, he asked: "Does this name mean anything to you? And when I stumbled, I added: "Don't worry, neither do I. He knows everything and everything and tells it perfectly. In painting, as he seriously proves, the main thing is impudence. The Itinerants, in his opinion, were already impertinent, and only because of this did they manage to do something. Miracle-workers, despite all their good manners, also insolent and "their own drag", and as for the different "Jacks of Diamonds" and "Donkey's tails" there, they are just big men and everything, like a selection, of huge growth. So, young lady, you won't succeed," he said thoughtfully. - You are correct, but you have to climb into the arena incorrect way.
When he heard that I was studying at Yakovlev's, he noticed that it would cost me a fortune, and when I joked that I was only paying a rouble (money) per session to the studio, he murmured: "It would cost more. In his opinion, the myrrh buddies have already played a role in their time, and much, and now they have no choice but to prove that they are "different". We have to deny something! And in order not to stretch out their legs, they also have to pretend that, while denying it, they "absorb" all the new directions - from here the exhibitions to which they invite the "left". "I imagine the miracles of self-control shown by our well-educated Mstislav Valerianovich when he deals with these sasses," he said of Dobuzhinsky. But there are a lot of talented people among them, like Mashkov," he said, "and they will show themselves.
He was very interested in the drawing. "During the first decade of the 20th century, artists all over the world tried to learn how to draw. Matisse was a first-class painter, but he also made every effort to get rid of his art. From the point of view of the public, he suddenly began to draw like children. And in practice, he studied the drawing, which was necessary for his pictorial ideas.
I listened to him hanging his ears. Yakovlev never said anything like that to me, who, instead of explaining my mistake, corrected it, sometimes without a word.
- If you want to learn something, dear lady, - go to Paris, - said goodbye, Rheingart. - And here you only learn one thing - not to be able to work. And in my opinion, you left your math in vain. By the way, maybe you could use it for painting as well.
What is it like? You can't even imagine, dear Kostik, the confusion that reigns in my poor, confused head.
To be continued...